The long-term effects of unemployment on a person - Essay Example

On the other hand, unemployment will increase depression and anxiety, decrease self esteem and cause detrimental health consequences. This situation worsens when efforts to secure employment continuously end in failure over a prolonged period of time (Motoko 9). This paper will discuss the causes, long term effects on individuals and possible solutions to unemployment. Causes of Unemployment Unemployment may be occasioned by several factors in different forms. They include rising costs of operating business, mismatch of skills and required types of jobs available in a region, and rapid growth of technology (Ruhm 618).

In the example of rising costs of operations, the automobile industry is undergoing difficulties due to the rising prices of oil and oil products. The high prices of oil are eating into company profits, forcing investors in the industry to cut down on wage and salary budgets, hence reducing the number of employees (Ruhm 619). When there is a variance of skills and the jobs available in the same area, most citizens are rendered unsuitable for employment because they do not match the fundamental requirements.

Furthermore, with rapid advances in technology, employees need to be more efficient than they were before. This calls for more advanced training that requires extra funding, which may be unavailable to uninformed citizens (Motoko 51). Another cause may be the fact that there are individuals available for the jobs, but they usually find themselves in the hardships of transitions between jobs either because they have not identified a job that interests them or they are not suitably qualified (Motoko 51).

Effects of Unemployment Unemployment has negative effects on an individual’s personality, social life, physical and emotional health (Ruhm 618). Among the most significant long term psychological effects are stress, depression and suicidal tendencies. Stress is a complex result because most other effects end up in different types of stress. Studies have shown that persons who lost employment spent more time on visits to health centers, used more medication and spent more days on sick rest than those who were actively employed (Ruhm 622).

Unemployment is a stressful occurrence that has potential to affect mortality and morbidity in national health trends, death trends or individual persons’ changes in specified times. Stress Unemployed people are not able to earn money and fit productively into society (Boyce, Wood & Brown 531). Stress is a key effect of unemployment, and its levels are directly proportional to the duration an individual has been out of employment. Money, success and social status, makes an individual confident, and a well paying job is synonymous with these aspects.

Unemployment reduces peoples’ satisfaction levels with their careers and finances (Motoko 51). When a job is lost, an individual loses confidence and self esteem, which grows into stress as time advances. High levels of stress are known to impact physical effects on the human body and most unemployed people are known to ignore self care practices leading to a degrading level of health (Ruhm 624). Unable to Fulfill Financial Obligations With the inability to earn substantial, regular income, most unemployed people soon exhaust their savings (Motoko 84).

Long term commitments entered into while still with the security of employment, such as mortgage